In the new comedy Morning Glory, actress Rachel McAdams plays Becky — a harried news producer trying to raise ratings at her bottom-ranked morning news-show, Daybreak. The story is set in a particularly specific work environment not known to many people — the world of early-morning television news.

With that unique setting, obviously the film will be scrutinized by those who work in the field — some of whom will surely come in contact with McAdams and co-stars Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford while they’re promoting Morning Glory. So to ensure a realistic tone for the script and especially its lead character, screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) and McAdams individually spent time embedded in those work environments.

McAdams, who told AMC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff that she doesn’t own a television, shadowed several executive producers (at very early hours) at the three big networks in New York City: NBC (Today), ABC (Good Morning America), and CBS (The Early Show).

McAdams told AMC News that she learned a lot about the “crazy” job the producers, talent, and staff perform each morning and said that several of the high-profile anchors told her — referring to the task of portraying morning news on the big screen — that she’d better “get it right.”